a sewist from the past.

I went to this cute little museum at a local historical mansion. the museum was quite small but had a lot of things dating from around the nineteen teens through the nineteen forties. my favorite part of course being the sewing corner.

just look at this lovely machine! I have never seen one with a cover. (not that I have seen that many)

everything in the house is original to it, including the patterns stacked on the machine. I really love that one on top of the stack. its butterick 5365, if I had that pattern I would totally make it.

and how lovely that they actually had a dress made from one of the patterns! they had the dress hanging on the wall beside the machine. this one is simplicity 8025 which I would also like for myself. its so interesting to see what others have made. and to think how when she made this dress it would have been in the height of fashion. it does make me wonder though did they make the other patterns as well? or did they as so many of us sewist do, simply buy the patterns because we loved them but never got around to making them.

I should have asked more about the machine and patterns, the staff seemed knowledgeable about other things in the house so they may have been about that aspect as well. but of course I didn’t think to ask about it while I was there. I do believe the dress was made either by or for the wife as the pattern has Mrs. Silversteen handwritten on it.(its under simplicity) I have noticed that people used to write their names on their patterns. do people still do this? I never have, but maybe once I finish a pattern I should sign it. hmm... next pattern I make I think I will do just that.

polka dot dresses!

all the polka dots!


we went out for ice cream at a fifties themed ice cream shop. they make their own ice cream and its amazing and creamy. my sister and I really did eat the ice cream too but it was too hard to take pictures and eat an ice cream cone at the same time.



we then went to a park and did some photos, its a new park so the chimney was amazingly clean.in fact I don't think it had ever been used, otherwise we would not have been playing in it with our new dresses.



and of course while at the park we had to do some spinning in the fields!

the only thing I was really disappointed about was I forgot the tripod so we didn't get any pictures of all three of us together. but maybe we can all get dressed up again some day and get some more pictures. it was a lot of fun. and I think that for winning a contest to make one dress its pretty cool I was able to make three.

Black polka dot dress

this time the dress is for my sister.

back in February I was given this black polka dot fabric. I had every intention of making myself a sundress with it for this summer. then I won the red polka dot fabric, and while yes I could have had two polka dot dresses I decided one for now would be fine, and asked my sister if she would like a dress. of course she said yes. she happens to be the same size as the pattern so that made it all the easier. plus being that I used the same pattern as the one I made my red dress from it went together more quickly.
the one issue I do have with the pattern is I don’t like how the pleats and darts line up. I know that I am being ticky here but I really wanted the darts and the pleats to line up evenly, but the pattern has the darts hitting in the middle of a pleat. to me it has a cleaner line to all be even together, so I I shifted the pleats a bit to get the look I wanted. I had to do this on my red dress as well but I figured it was because I had to resize mine. but like I said I am just being ticky here.

here is how I lined it up.

and I was really irritated at walmart because they were all out of the half inch bias tape, (the nearest fabric store is an hour away.) they are so bad at keeping things in stock. they did have the quarter inch folded bias tape, so I opted to buy that and press it flat, which works but its so much easier and really looks better, not to have to press it. this will be it for the polka dots for now. at least the sewing aspect of it. I hope to get the three of us together really soon to do a photo shoot. won’t that be so fun!